Over the last ten years orbital disc sanders have gained acceptance in the marketplace. Orbital disc sanders are characterised by a rotational and orbital motion of the sanding disc surface. This combined motion is in contrast with the purely orbital motion of more traditional random orbital sanders.
Orbital disc sanders need to be stopped before they are set down, otherwise they are likely to vibrate off of the work surface and fall to the ground where they may be damaged. Due to the rotational inertia of the rotating sanding head, the head may take over ten seconds to fully stop. As such, every time the operator of an orbital disc sander needs to attend to a different task there is time wasted waiting for the sander to completely stop.
The sanding surface of orbital disc sanders comprises of a disc shaped sanding sheet that is attached to the sanding head with a pressure sensitive adhesive or a hook and loop fastener. These sanding disc sheets must routinely be replaced when their surface wears out or becomes packed with dust and grit. Industries that intensively use orbital disc sanders can spend considerable amounts of time and money replacing the sanding disc sheets.